


huddled.

by ahausonfire (thisiswherethefishlives)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 14:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9907181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisiswherethefishlives/pseuds/ahausonfire
Summary: It’s a funny little thing, the way that they always come together in the end. Like magnets. Or fate. Or a thousand other nameless things that keep them stuck in each other’s orbits.Whatever it is, whatever the reason, Derek finds that more often than not he’s searching for Dex.





	

It’s a funny little thing, the way that they always come together in the end. Like magnets. Or fate. Or a thousand other nameless things that keep them stuck in each other’s orbits.

Whatever it is, whatever the reason, Derek finds that more often than not he’s searching for Dex. Seeking him out like it’s vital, and maybe it is. Maybe that’s why they’re here right now, huddled close (closer than any excuse Derek can call to mind will allow) as if to find shelter from the throbbing bass that leaks from the living room below.

He’s close enough to smell the cologne Dex wears (dark and warm and gorgeous and expensive - a gift, a promise, an unspoken plea from Derek - for what, he’s never been sure - brushed off as nothing more than a obligatory Christmas gift, gaudy in its simple elegance - and oh, how Dex had flushed and burned and held himself in defeat - as if the socks he had knit for Derek were any less worthy - as if he wasn't enough). He’s close enough to see the way Dex’s freckles have bled together over the summer and close enough to feel the way Dex’s breath hitches when Derek sways closer.

It’s a swirling little feeling, the way Derek goes sideways whenever Dex is in the room. First it’s his stomach - a churning vortex of nerves and want and vertigo that has him leaning closer, one hand on Dex’s shoulder and the other on his arm… as if touching Dex would make it easier. After his stomach it’s his heart - beating at a rabbit’s pace, making Derek feel like prey even as he looms closer into Dex’s space. Derek knows better than to trust his racing heart, because if anyone in this hallway is a predator, it’s him.

Carefully, carefully, he presses Dex back until he’s pinned to the wall - like a butterfly, or a beetle, or any of a thousand other beautiful things - and for all their tension, Dex allows himself to be moved without a fight. He just goes, lets himself be easy for once in their lives, red solo cup clutched to his chest and his eyes blinking slow and low - low enough for his eyelashes to brush down against the flush of his cheeks with each sweep. And he’s beautiful.

“I’ve never kissed a guy,” he says, lips frowning even as they form around his words, and it’s such a Dex-like thing to do (how he frowns around even the most innocuous of words) that it’s got Derek smiling into Dex’s gravity, fingers pushing Dex against the wall even as he aches to pull Dex in. Sometimes Derek thinks that Dex would let him.

It’s a quiet little moment, when Dex closes his eyes, cheeks flushing in a way that has nothing to do with his drink, and god, Derek is drunk on that flush. He’s wasted on Dex - messy and dangerous and nothing but trouble - and maybe that’s why he doesn’t see it coming when Dex’s lips are frowning around his words again. Why he doesn’t know what to do when Dex tacks on that last word to his sentence - it’s still a fragment of a thought ( _‘I’ve never kissed a guy but’_ ), but having tacked on that last syllable… it changes everything.

Because then Dex is opening his eyes, and Dex is pressing close enough where Derek can feel his breath fan across Derek’s lips, and Dex can never again say that he’s never kissed a guy.

There’s nothing small about it.


End file.
